[hider="The Shangri La Incident"]Alexis pulled her car into the lightly snowed over driveway of her house and turned it off. After getting out, she walked to the back of the vehicle and opened the trunk, removing a wrapped up gift. Alexis smiled to herself as she closed the trunk, locked her car and entered through the front door of the house. Immediately to her right was the kitchen, the light was on and there was a radio on the counter playing that classic Christmas music that everybody is forced to listen to every year. The cutlery drawer had been left open. Down the hall, was the living room. The lights were off save for the light given off by the television. "James, I'm home." Alexis called out.

There wasn't any response, which made her curious. Alexis walked down the hallway, still holding onto the gift. As she got closer, she heard a voice from the television, "Your reality is made by the limitations you believe you have. For just a couple minutes, I want you to forget about those limitations, and see what your mind can accomplish."

Alexis rolled her eyes, turning the corner and looking straight at the television. It was a show that James, her nine year old son, seemed to always watch without her permission. The man on the screen was known as Percival, and he was the host to his show called 'The Third Eye'. The show had given her the creeps since the day it aired, and told her son that he wasn't allowed to watch it.

"Oh. Hey, mum." a voice said from behind her, making her jump a bit.

In the corner of the living room, James sat, staring intensely at a tea spoon. At his feet, was a pile of the things, which explained the open cutlery drawer. Alexis looked at her son for a moment, then back to AlIen, "How many times do I need to tell you that you aren't allowed watching this show?"

Alexis set the gift down on the living room coffee table and switched the channel to the Discovery channel. She made sure the program was good for him, it was a show on the planets of the Solar system. She then turned the light on in the room so it wasn't as eerie. James didn't even bother to look at the T.V., he just continued staring at the teaspoon. Alexis tried to draw his attention away from it, "Well, Christmas is two weeks away, and I got you a gift that I think you'll love!"

"I don't like telescopes." the boy said in a flat tone.

Alexis frowned and looked at the wrapped gift, she had just bought it and got it wrapped at the mall, how did he know. She decided to play it off, "Well it might not be a telescope, you never know what Santa has in store for you."

"It's a telescope." James said back.

Alexis sighed and picked the gift up from the coffee table, bringing it to the kitchen with her. She set it down on the counter and closed the cutlery drawer. James called out from the living room, "Uncle Mike is here, mom."

She heard a knock on her door right before it opened. "Alexis?" a man called out.

Alexis got the chills, both from the winter air coming in and the fact that her nine year old just called something that she didn't even notice. "Hey, Mike." she said from the kitchen, turning his gaze to her.

He stepped into the house and took off his shoes, "Hey," he said back, "I heard about the results! Best in the whole class, huh? Congrats! I brought some beer!"

She chuckled and ran her hands through her shoulder length black hair, "Thanks, Mike. I actually wouldn't mind one of those right about now. Been thinking back, y'know?" she looked to the cabinet on the other side of the kitchen where a small shrine was set up around a photo.

The photo had a man in uniform, smiling with the Canadian flag behind him. To the right of the photo, was a small box with medals in it and to the left was a platinum ring with a Ruby inlaid on top. Mike frowned a bit as he looked at the photo, "Ah cheer up! Let's have a drink and enjoy the Christmas season! I know that's what my brother would want." he took two bottles of beer from the case and opened them.

"Cheers." he said and held out the bottle.

Before Alexis could cheer back, both of their phones rang. They answered them in unison.

"Be there shortly." Mike said.

"Understood." followed Alexis, she hung up the phone and set the beer on the counter, "We'll need to drink to Adam after."

Mike smiled and nodded to her, he then went to the door and put his shoes on. Alexis stepped into the living room, "James, Mom has to go to work. I will be back in a couple of hours. Make sure you brush your teeth and get in bed by nine-thirty, okay? There's some left over pizza in the fridge that you can heat up."

James only nodded and kept looking at the same spoon he had earlier. Alexis sighed again and left the house.
__________
Forty minutes later...

"Welcome to ERT, Alexis!" Mike cheered for her, followed by six other specialists around a black helicopter.

ERT, the Emergency Response Team, was Canada's equivalent to the USA's SWAT teams. Alexis had just finished the advanced training necessary to become one. She was just a police officer before hand but thought she needed to step up her game in memory of her husband who was killed in the Afghanistan. Alexis smiled back to the other operators, "Thanks, glad to be here."

Mike patted her on the back and gestured everybody into the helicopter. Their chief stepped aboard right after. "Here's the situation. There is a hostage crisis on the fifty-seventh floor of the Living Shangri La in downtown Vancouver. There is a high profile VIP being held there by an extremist group we've yet to identify. They're heavily armed and have the place fortified. You need to secure that VIP, his name is Pierre Lionne, a French dignitary on vacation with his family."

The helicopter lifted off and quickly climbed higher than the sky scrapers that graced the Vancouver skyline. It was easy to pick out the Shangri La, it was the tallest building in the city. The first stop was to drop off two of the operatives on the neighboring roof, they held sniper rifles in their hands. The two ERT specialists quickly ran and set up on the edge of the building. The helicopter lifted off again and brought the rest of the team to the rooftop of the Shangri La. They all disembarked and scanned the area. Things seemed clear, it probably wouldn't have been if Lionne had taken an apartment closer to the roof. Three of the specialists quickly ran to the edge of the building and began to set up for a window breach, Mike was one of them. Alexis and the remaining two specialists were to take the emergency staircase. "Eyes on." said one of the snipers.

"I see thirteen. Ten of 'em are packing some serious gear. G36 carbines, grenades and body armor. The other three, though... Looks like triplets in all honesty. Tall, thin. Wearing suits, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got some armor underneath 'em. They've got briefcases, could be explosives or nerve agents. This is starting to look a little more like a terrorist act than a hostage situation."

Mike, who was now dangling off the side of the tall building, nodded. "We're not in position yet, keep your eyes peeled. Any sign of who these guys are?"

"I see one of them wearing a patch on his shoulder, stand by... EXALT. Ever hear of 'em?" the sniper asked.

There was a quick response from everybody, all of them negative. Alexis and the team we was with got to the door they needed to be at. "We're in position. What's your status, Mike?"

"In position." he responded, "Stay where you are. We need to ID Lionne and the rest of his family first."

The five minute wait was unbearable, but it came to an end eventually. The sniper chimed up in their ear pieces, "Lionne spotted. He's alive and kicking. No eyes on his family yet."

Alexis then spoke up, "Lets get in there and secure the place."

"We can't just go in guns blazing when the VIP is in such a vulnerable position and we have no idea where his family is." Mike advised, "Patience. You're just a rookie, wait and see."

It was another ten minutes of hell. Waiting. Listening as Lionne screamed in pain, EXALT had begun interrogating the poor man four minutes into the wait. Then, the chief spoke again. "Withdraw."

Mike instantly replied, "Withdraw?! What are you talking about?"

"You heard me. I've got some guy breathing down my neck, some government agent who refuses to give me his clearances. But his name checks out. I guess another task force is taking over. Withdraw."

Mike shook his head and looked at his team, the two others with him both seemed to disagree with this order. It wasn't long until Mike gave the order. "Breach."

It started with the two snipers picking off the man interrogating Lionne and another who would have presented the biggest threat to the team breaching through the door. Before they even hit the floor, the windows shattered and the door was kicked in and a flashbang did its job. From two angles, the ERT struck. The door team fanned out and killed another four EXALT as they were stunned by the flashbang. The three men in the suits ran out of sight from the snipers and the rest of the team, down a hallway in the apartment. The window team was quick in pursuit as Alexis and the other two that came from the door dealt with the ones around Lionne, they were backed up by the snipers.

Mike was behind his two team mates. The man on point, became nothing in an instant. It took a moment for Mike and the ERT operative in front of him to realize that he has just been vaporized. A hole was burnt into the drywall, on the other side stood the three men in the suits, their open briefcases on the floor and some strange weapons in their hands. There was a sort of green energy emanating from the weapons. Another shot came their way and burnt through the drywall like a hot knife through butter. The shot grazed Mike, singing his body armor around his stomach to just scraps. It was like they were shooting plasma at him.

The man next to Mike wasn't so fortunate as the next shot came. It took his head clean off, the sheer heat of the plasma cauterizing the stump of a neck left behind. Mike pulled back down the hallway, just in time to hear Alexis yell, "Clear!"

Mike yelled back, "Not clear! Take cover, frag out!" he took one of the grenades off of the webbing of a dead EXALT member and threw it down the hallway. He dived behind a couch, Alexis did the same. Lionne panicked as he was tackled by an ERT operative to cover. There was a distinct bang and a shriek. Then from the smoke and rubble, two more green bolts of energy flew toward them. Mike returned fire, putting four rounds into the chest of one. It hissed and lurched over, some strange cloud of exploding from the wounds and eating away at the materials around it.

"The hell is that?! That's not a human!" Alexis said as she fired more shots down the ruined hallway.

Mike gestured to the remaining other two ERT members, the ones who had entered with Alexis, "Suppressing fire down that hallway! Alexis, find out if he knows what happened to his family."

Shots were exchanged, Alexis had to yell over the gunfire to speak to Lionne, "Your family! Where are they?"

Lionne replied through a thick French accent, "They took them! They're gone!" he broke down as he said that.

Through the door, a squad of soldiers rushed through. They were wearing gear that Mike nor Alexis has ever seen. Three of the four soldiers joined their fire with the ERT operatives. One went to Mike, "Major Shawn Jensen, give me a report!"

Mike knew this was out of his hands, he quickly responded, "We got some inhuman... Things down that hallway! They bleed acid and are armed with-"

"We'll take it from here, Sergeant." Jensen interrupted him.

Shawn ordered his team forward into the hallway, and the firefight quickly came to an end. Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing. One of the soldiers was dragging the dead body of one of the creatures. "HQ this is Gold Squad, the report was accurate. Situation clear." Shawn said over a radio.

The ERT snipers spoke up from their own radio, "Uh... Mike? Are you seeing this?"

Mike replied, "Seeing what?"

"Everything just got distorted. You all are looking pretty wavy right now."

Then there was a light coming from the main window, it was blinding. From the snipers' point of view, they could see a strange disc like ship materialize out of nowhere. One of the glowing sections of the ship seemed to open up. The snipers could see inside, they could see the crew of the ship. Small gray creatures with large heads, classic gray aliens. They were dumbstruck, they didn't know what to do.

Inside the Shangri La, the light was too much. Alexis felt lighter all of a sudden. Lionne started to scream uncontrollably. She heard Shawn, "Hold on!"

Hold on to what?! Thought Alexis as she felt herself get lifted off the ground by some invisible force. It seemed Lionne was experiencing the same thing. There was a sudden thump as somebody tackled them. She lost her grip on Lionne as he was ripped from her by the tackle, but she was still weightless. Alexis began to spin like she was in zero gravity. Shawn spoke up, "VIP secured! Get him to safety, men!" he seemed to be in a panic himself.

She also heard Mike, her brother-in-law, "Shit! Shit shit shit! Lexi! No!"

It was as though she was the only one blinded by the light. And when it ended, she hit a metal surface. Seeing three of the soldiers, the two ERT operatives and Mike, with a look of terror on his face, staring back at her. She looked to her right, and saw Shawn. He must have pushed Lionne out of the way and got trapped in the light himself. But he was already standing and reaching for his pistol. He aimed at something, but a plasma shot punched through his chest quicker than he could pull the trigger. When Alexis turned to see what Jensen was killed by, she saw the aliens. Six short creatures with large heads. In between them was an orange crystal which materialized into a humanoid being.

It looked at her, studied her, and then knocked her out with a swift kick.

Mike watched as the glowing section on the craft filled back in. There was a sound of some sort of engine powering up. A distortion of light. And a strange 'pow' sound as the ship launched of to the horizon in the blink of an eye. It was a UFO, it had taken Alexis, his late brother's wife. He had promised his brother, Adam, that he would watch out for her while Adam was deployed. He couldn't keep his promise.
__________
Two hours later...

Mike stepped through the door to Alexis's home. All of the lights were off, except for the television lighting the living room. The kitchen drawer was open, spoons were all over the floor and trailed into the living room. All of them were bent. Mike followed the trail and saw James, the nine year old orphan, as he bent a twisted a spoon with his mind. There was a device set up next to the window, it was a telescope, Christmas wrapping was all over the floor. On the television, there was that psychic figure that Alexis hated so much, AlIen. He studied the figure, and recognized right away. The man on the television, looked exactly like the three aliens he had encountered in the Shangri La.

Mike quickly turned the television off and turned to James, kneeling down to him, "Hey, buddy... Mom wants you to come stay at my place for a bit. Go pack some clothes okay?"

James lit up happily and ran upstairs. Mike remained in his place, looking at the twisted and bent spoons of the floor. He turned the television back on and saw AlIen looking straight at him. He shook his head and switched the channel to the Discovery channel, AlIen was there too, only it wasn't AlIen. It was another television figurehead. He switched the channel again, everywhere he looked he saw these thin men. That's when he realized, that the Earth, had been invaded.[/hider]

So I want to do an X-COM RP! I've been wanting to for a long time now. This RP will mostly take place in Northern Canada, Russia and the Arctic circle as a whole. But since we're RPing characters from X-COM you can be from any nation! I want this to be a sort of horror theme roleplay, since I've always loved the creepy ambiance X-COM gives off during missions. We'll fight all of the creatures from the game (the new one) and I'll also think of some new ones to keep things interesting!

If you're interested, please let me know! If this interest check goes well, I will put up an OOC with the character sheet template and rules, as well as more details of the overall RP.

If you haven't played X-COM or haven't even heard of it, never fear! I will gladly explain anything that needs explaining to you. So if you liked the 'Shangri La Incident' mini story, and feel that this might be an RP you could enjoy, Don't hesitate to show your interest!